Squeezed in another session today, one that involved looting, pillaging, and finally some long awaited building.
As I was breaking down the nearest Zirax base, I discovered a hidden "alien storage" container, which always contains rare items. It had gold and neodymium, but no zascosium, or something that could be broken down for zascosium... at least so I thought at the time. I needed zascosium to make power coils, as well as to alloy with neodymium, both of which I needed for the tool turret.
After three trips, it was time for another Zirax attack. They came bearing gifts, which I gratefully accepted.
Powercoils! Two of them. I needed just one more, and the second could be broken down for the zascosium. Another two coils, and I could build my tool turret!
It was at this point I decided to see what else required zascosium in one form or another, so I could keep an eye out for it as I looted Zirax bases. As I was looking at the advanced constructor's list of devices for which I had "insufficient resources," I had an "Wait... didn't I just find one of those things?" moment. I'd recently found a second Tech-2 Repair Bay, which could be broken down for power coils, zascosium, as well as zascosium alloys. I was going to save it for my eventual capital ship, but I needed that stuff NOW. So I tossed it into my recycler, and broke it down for parts.
Anticipating my future Tool Turret, I set about designing the Salvage Noelle. Naturally, I started with its chassis. The nice thing about hover vehicles, is that you don't have to heavily armor the bottom. Hover engines, maneuvering thrusters, generator, sensors, fuel tank, ammo bay, and cargo could all be installed along the bottom. I also included some support for the hovercraft's turrets. Once they were in place, I would remove them. The six hover engines should be able to lift over 400 tons of cargo.
Next, I installed the cockpit and all four turrets: three miniguns and the tool turret at the back. I popped a little fuel in the tank, and tested out the drive and maneuvering systems. Unfortunately, I didn't test the turrets at this time. Otherwise, I would've noticed a major flaw in its design.
Unjustly satisfied with my tests, I added the armor, painted it, detailed it, and then paused to take a selfie. Behold, the Salvage Noelle, Mk One.
It is at this point I realized I should test the weapons systems, and discovered a major flaw in my design: the turrets are only capable of about 60 degrees of "elevation", and very little declination! Their current placement meant I had some serious gaps in their firing arcs! So I ripped out the turrets, and set about correcting the flaws I'd found.
After I fought off another Zirax attack, of course. I'd forgotten to enable the base defenses this time, so the Flying Brick took a bit of unnecessary damage. Thankfully, the first repair bay I found was able to fix it right up, especially after I'd discovered I can put resources in it in advance.
Eventually, though, the modifications were complete. Behold! The Salvage Noelle, Mark Two!
Normally, only one of the turrets on the top of the ship can be deployed at any time.
Like a Shield Generator... assuming I can find the parts.
Once complete, I set out to test it... without loading the ammo first. So I turned around, loaded the ammo, and set out once again! And encountered a bug that crashed the game. Thankfully, I'd thought to back up the game not long before, so I didn't lose much progress. It's still in Alpha, after all, so I suppose encountering another fatal bug had to happen sooner or later.
I love the chapter style of your progress and exploits. Like I am reading a book, very entertaining. I especially like the iteration designs of the ships. They look great and that aspect of the game is kind of calling to me.
I don't want to buy ships. I want to make ships and experiment and improve and rebuild. I didnt really know this until I read the thread, but now I can identify those feelings I want to feed it what it needs.
Still working through this ship I have in Space Engineers, now in Empyrion here. Lots of work to do, but slowly it's kind of getting there.
Once I have it done I'll put it into survival mode, probably last an hour or two if I'm lucky. But I'll get to see it's weaknesses and be able to rectify them as best as possible.
The planets in Empyrion, those that I have seen so far, which are very few, look really good. Not sure if these are PG or Randomly Generated or not. Either way they look good and the weather and day/night cycles are nicely done.
Space travel is better in Space Engineers, but that would be hard to do in Empyrion here to the same degree. There are compromises with all games, this is one such compromise I guess. The game is however a little gem (after this latest update) and I'm glad I'm giving it the time it deserves to build and get used to all the controls and so on.
The galaxy is very large indeed, plus I think we'll see even more later, either by the devs or probably more likely modders.
I'm also looking through ships on the WS. There are some really nice ships in there, I wouldn't use one for long term, because I always use mine or friends ships to use ingame long term. However the ships available are many and various. Easily find one to suit more or less every type of player if your not into building.
There is quite a lot of things to get the hang of in Empyrion, but the results you get from the game, are really good.
Well worth a look at if your into space games and/or survival.
Dear Galactic Survivalists! Today is the day: we are leaving Early Access, starting into the post-Alpha development phase. This means: We have removed the Alpha-tag from the build number, as this term was tied to the Early Access phase. The version will now read 1.x instead of 13.x or 14.x etc...
What is this like for someone who is bored of tree punching survival games? I like the look of it but I don't want to spend ages collecting sticks so I can build a shed for my sticks
I mostly ignore the base building stuff in No Mans Sky for example, I'd rather be exloring that collecting rocks. I'm worried that I might have to spend hours collecting rocks and building things before I can start exploring properly
What is this like for someone who is bored of tree punching survival games? I like the look of it but I don't want to spend ages collecting sticks so I can build a shed for my sticks
I mostly ignore the base building stuff in No Mans Sky for example, I'd rather be exloring that collecting rocks. I'm worried that I might have to spend hours collecting rocks and building things before I can start exploring properly
The current build pretty much drops you on top of large deposits of the three starter minerals, and the tutorial missions provide you with a "damaged hoverbike" that can be easily repaired, plus sufficient saplings for a fairly large but basic farm. The first story mission leads you to a nearby wrecked capital ship and a crashed small ship capable of orbital flight, including your local moon, once similarly repaired.
Travel to other planets in the solar system, or to other solar systems, will require a considerable investment in time, resources, and leveling your character up. The starting planet also has quite a few wrecked ships on it, so its also possible to salvage many of the parts you need. But either way, traveling farther than your local moon is going to require quite a bit of effort.
It is a survival game, after all. Personally, I think all the difficulty levels except the hardest one are fairly laid back, but I'm the type of player that tends to make games more difficult, as opposed to the reverse. YMMV
What is this like for someone who is bored of tree punching survival games? I like the look of it but I don't want to spend ages collecting sticks so I can build a shed for my sticks
I mostly ignore the base building stuff in No Mans Sky for example, I'd rather be exloring that collecting rocks. I'm worried that I might have to spend hours collecting rocks and building things before I can start exploring properly
Nice thing about Empyrion is its a sandbox game and the devs have made sure most types of player can start however they like.
So for instance, the way I play Empyrion is the same way I play Space Engineers. I build a ship, or you can use someone elses (WS for example), I prefer larger ships for the challenge they give when building them, then run the ship in survival mode. After building the ship in creative mode, I put it over into survival mode.
So really you can play from whichever start you want. The game allows for that.
'If your passing by drop in', well at least I thought that is what it translated to. Anyway despite the language difference, it was a nice evening in a lovely setting.
It’s a narrative driven quest. You’re free to follow it, or ignore it, at your own discretion. The main advantage of following it is that at by the end of the “Opening Chapter,” you get a fairly good starting package.
It’s a narrative driven quest. You’re free to follow it, or ignore it, at your own discretion. The main advantage of following it is that at by the end of the “Opening Chapter,” you get a fairly good starting package.
Is it the only narrative and the only quest? I'm not much for "hand-holding", so I tend to explore and learn things on my own, but I also enjoy quests and narratives and things that give the gaming world a sense of life and lore. Can I skip this "starter quest" and still get a sense of life and lore?
Is it the only narrative and the only quest? I'm not much for "hand-holding", so I tend to explore and learn things on my own, but I also enjoy quests and narratives and things that give the gaming world a sense of life and lore. Can I skip this "starter quest" and still get a sense of life and lore?
There’s at least ten chapters to the story so far, IIRC. I’ve gotten as far as chapter three, before getting killed by something, and starting a new game. There’s also a limited number of “side quests,” plus some of the POIs have something resembling a “story” behind them.
It’s not a particularly original or compelling story, and it very much feels like a WIP, but I don’t expect CDPR quality from a two-person team, especially when English isn’t their native language. Still, it does the job it needs to do IMO. YMMV
Today I started playing EGS serious-like, but I'm not following the "hold your hands" story mode, so I have a couple of questions.
1) Can I claim wreckage as a base by attaching the base starter block to it?
2) Can I repair damaged stuff like banged-up metal, like I can with the welder in SE?
I'm enjoy EGS so far, but that's because I'm in an exploring and survival mood more than I am in a building things mood. EGS definitely beats SE hands-down in this regard.
Yes, but not with the base starter block. You just need a core. You can pretty much claim anything that doesn't have an active core for your own use. That way, when you're salvaging a structure, you an retrieve whole blocks, rather than salvage some of the block's components.
A functioning multi-tool is a life saver in this game.
Yes you can, but some of the "banged-up metal" are actually decorative blocks. Still useful to salvage for resources, though, plus they are decorative blocks. You can use them if you want to give your base some flavor. Your multi-tool will be able to tell you the kind of block it is pointing at.
So you're okay that this game lets me stuff entire buildings into my pants pocket? I know ALL games stretch believability when it comes to what we can carry, but this game seems to really take it to the next level. It's doing some serious damage to my immersion...
So you're okay that this game lets me stuff entire buildings into my pants pocket? I know ALL games stretch believability when it comes to what we can carry, but this game seems to really take it to the next level. It's doing some serious damage to my immersion...
It depends upon difficulty setting, but even on easy, I don’t think you can stuff “entire buildings” into your pockets. I’ll be resuming my Sidewinder Edition series today (finally got Squadrons out of my system), but IIRC, the limit is six large blocks in inventory before you need to rely on the remote retrieval system.
As for immersion... EGS is much in the same boat as SE: the mass you can carry is more egregious than the volume IMO. I’ve got to assume that there’s some strength augmentation going on. I’m also assuming that between the time and space compression of both games, what we see on the monitors isn’t what’s actually going on in-game. Multiple trips, wheelbarrows, hand drawn wagons, block and tackle, “some assembly required” components ... they’re happening, just not portrayed for the same reasons that biological functions aren’t portrayed... they tend to drag the gameplay down for most players. YMMV.
It’s one of those acceptable breaks from reality, where too much realism spoils the game. Just assume what you’re seeing on screen is a montage.
It depends upon difficulty setting, but even on easy, I don’t think you can stuff “entire buildings” into your pockets. I’ll be resuming my Sidewinder Edition series today (finally got Squadrons out of my system), but IIRC, the limit is six large blocks in inventory before you need to rely on the remote retrieval system.
As for immersion... EGS is much in the same boat as SE: the mass you can carry is more egregious than the volume IMO. I’ve got to assume that there’s some strength augmentation going on. I’m also assuming that between the time and space compression of both games, what we see on the monitors isn’t what’s actually going on in-game. Multiple trips, wheelbarrows, hand drawn wagons, block and tackle, “some assembly required” components ... they’re happening, just not portrayed for the same reasons that biological functions aren’t portrayed... they tend to drag the gameplay down for most players. YMMV.
It’s one of those acceptable breaks from reality, where too much realism spoils the game. Just assume what you’re seeing on screen is a montage.
I've gone back to Space Engineers, and it just feels way more realistic, even though I know it's not truly realistic. In EGS, I can salvage a large constructor, and the entire constructor (which is way bigger than I am) just fits in my pocket. In SE, I can't stick a refinery in my pocket - I can't even carry all the parts necessary to construct / salvage a refinery without making multiple trips. When I'm building in SE, I need to keep this in mind, so I often use a truck to load up supplies to keep them close to me, something I just don't need to really worry about in EGS.
The big advantage EGS has over SE for me personally is it gives me something to do with the things I build. However, I recently started playing on Keen's multiplayer servers, and this has really changed the game for me. I'm no longer alone in the universe with no purpose - now I share it with other real players, so I have people to see, places to go, trades to make (everyone needs more iron), and perhaps battles to wage. On the other hand, I've not seen a single soul during my many hours playing so far, so nobody is griefing me or ruining my solitude. It's the best of both worlds, and it's got me hooked on SE again. That's not to say that SE doesn't have room for improvement - it has a ton room to add gameplay like EGS has, but multiplayer goes a long way in filling some of these gaps.
I've gone back to Space Engineers, and it just feels way more realistic, even though I know it's not truly realistic. In EGS, I can salvage a large constructor, and the entire constructor (which is way bigger than I am) just fits in my pocket. In SE, I can't stick a refinery in my pocket - I can't even carry all the parts necessary to construct / salvage a refinery without making multiple trips. When I'm building in SE, I need to keep this in mind, so I often use a truck to load up supplies to keep them close to me, something I just don't need to really worry about in EGS.
The big advantage EGS has over SE for me personally is it gives me something to do with the things I build. However, I recently started playing on Keen's multiplayer servers, and this has really changed the game for me. I'm no longer alone in the universe with no purpose - now I share it with other real players, so I have people to see, places to go, trades to make (everyone needs more iron), and perhaps battles to wage. On the other hand, I've not seen a single soul during my many hours playing so far, so nobody is griefing me or ruining my solitude. It's the best of both worlds, and it's got me hooked on SE again. That's not to say that SE doesn't have room for improvement - it has a ton room to add gameplay like EGS has, but multiplayer goes a long way in filling some of these gaps.
I can understand that. I’ve played similar games in multi-player before, and my reaction to other players is that they tend to ruin my fun, rather than enhance it. If they’re close enough to have an impact on my game, they’re too close for my comfort. If I’m going to aggressively avoid other players anyways, I might as well play it single-player.
I've gone back to Space Engineers, and it just feels way more realistic, even though I know it's not truly realistic. In EGS, I can salvage a large constructor, and the entire constructor (which is way bigger than I am) just fits in my pocket. In SE, I can't stick a refinery in my pocket - I can't even carry all the parts necessary to construct / salvage a refinery without making multiple trips. When I'm building in SE, I need to keep this in mind, so I often use a truck to load up supplies to keep them close to me, something I just don't need to really worry about in EGS.
The big advantage EGS has over SE for me personally is it gives me something to do with the things I build. However, I recently started playing on Keen's multiplayer servers, and this has really changed the game for me. I'm no longer alone in the universe with no purpose - now I share it with other real players, so I have people to see, places to go, trades to make (everyone needs more iron), and perhaps battles to wage. On the other hand, I've not seen a single soul during my many hours playing so far, so nobody is griefing me or ruining my solitude. It's the best of both worlds, and it's got me hooked on SE again. That's not to say that SE doesn't have room for improvement - it has a ton room to add gameplay like EGS has, but multiplayer goes a long way in filling some of these gaps.
If you are interested in a bit more realism, have a look at Stationeers. It is an early access title so still lots of bugs and unfinished stuff however it seems deeper than SE on the engineering side. You make both items, components and kits. Your autolathe for instance is a kit you put down and then you have to finish off its assembly using a number of different tools and components. Once constructed it must be wired to your power network, additional it can be wired and controlled via a data network as well.
So far I have smashed my helmet as a result of a fall in a mining pit, ripped my suit again in a mining accident, set myself on fire (do not hold a volatile and oxide in each hand and expose to sunlight) and burnt out sections of my base wiring (20Kw line into a 5Kw line using 5Kw cable is a bad idea). The first 3 were all fatal Currently researching emergency suit repair using duct tape
